This book is the first publication to focus on the work of the Jamaican-born, American photographer Percy Rain- ford. Between 1945 and 1956, Rainford collaborated on a number of art projects with Marcel Duchamp. Rainford began his career in the early 1930s as a photographer of fine art for catalogs and other publications, working for major museums in New York, including the Whitney Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as artists, who often needed high quality reproductions of their paintings and sculpture when applying for fel- lowships. After meeting Frederick Kiesler and Duchamp, Rainford’s work began to transcend its documentary impulse and the photographs he made in the 1940s and 1950s reflect his newfound interest in modernist experimentation.

Although virtually unknown today, Rainford was a highly respected artist during this period and this book, which is drawn from extensive archival research and interviews with the artist’s family, is intended to showcase the work of this remarkable avant-garde photographer, while also shedding new light on his collaborations with Duchamp and Kiesler.